Edwards submitted a 775-page manuscript which was titled Tara, The Continuation of Gone with the Wind, set between 1872 and 1882 and focusing on Scarlett's divorce from Rhett; MGM was not satisfied with the story and the deal collapsed. If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history. Victor Fleming, who was directing The Wizard of Oz, was called in from MGM to complete the picture, although Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh and De Havilland. It is well worth anyone's time. – #59, "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies." Having realized that it was him she truly loved all along, and not Ashley, Scarlett pleads with Rhett to stay, but he rebuffs her and walks away into the morning fog. Gone with the Wind was immensely popular when first released. Dale O'Connor . Melanie, however, stands by Scarlett. [11] Although Margaret Mitchell refused to publicly name her choice, the actress who came closest to winning her approval was Miriam Hopkins, who Mitchell felt was just the right type of actress to play Scarlett as written in the book. In 1989, the film was selected for preservation at the USA’s National Film Registry. [19] It was also the subject of a 1988 documentary, The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind, detailing the film's difficult production history. [103] David Reynolds wrote that "The white women are elegant, their menfolk are noble or at least dashing. I wish people made more movies like this nowadays..Yes! Five orchestrators were hired, including Hugo Friedhofer, Maurice de Packh, Bernard Kaun, Adolph Deutsch and Reginald Bassett. Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. Use the HTML below. Frank S. Nugent for The New York Times best summed up the general sentiment by acknowledging that while it was the most ambitious film production made up to that point, it probably was not the greatest film ever made, but he nevertheless found it to be an "interesting story beautifully told". Scarlett and Rhett visit Melanie, who has suffered complications arising from a new pregnancy, on her deathbed. [86], The film remains immensely popular with audiences into the 21st century, having been voted the most popular film in two nationwide polls of Americans undertaken by Harris Interactive in 2008, and again in 2014. [41] For its 1967 re-release, the film was blown up to 70mm,[9] and issued with updated poster artwork featuring Gable—with his white shirt ripped open—holding Leigh against a backdrop of orange flames. Anyone studying movie-writing should check this adaptation of the book. Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie gives birth with Scarlett's aid, and Rhett helps them flee the city. [51] Similarly, Hoellering found her "perfect" in "appearance and movements"; he felt her acting best when she was allowed to "accentuate the split personality she portrays" and thought she was particularly effective in such moments of characterization like the morning after the marital rape scene. HBO Max Brings 'Gone with the Wind' Back to Streaming with Disclaimer Videos Related 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:' Everything You Need to Know … [12] Goddard almost won the role, but controversy over her marriage with Charlie Chaplin caused Selznick to change his mind. Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood. The answer isn’t to sideline it. "Gone With the Wind," widely considered one of the greatest films in American cinematic history, has long been criticized for romanticizing depictions of slavery and the Civil War-era South. Rhett kisses Scarlett against her will and rapes her. Emanuel Levy, Cukor's biographer, claimed that Gable had worked Hollywood's gay circuit as a hustler and that Cukor knew of his past, so Gable used his influence to have him discharged. Selznick began a nationwide casting call that interviewed 1,400 unknowns. Filming was delayed for two years because of Selznick's determination to secure Gable for the role of Rhett Butler, and the "search for Scarlett" led to 1,400 women being interviewed for the part. [105], W. Bryan Rommel Ruiz has argued that despite factual inaccuracies in its depiction of the Reconstruction period, Gone with the Wind reflects contemporary interpretations of it that were common in the early 20th century. The rustle of petticoats. [71] A further re-release in 1971 allowed it to briefly recapture the record from The Sound of Music, bringing its total worldwide gross rental to about $116 million by the end of 1971—more than trebling its earnings from its initial release—before losing the record again the following year to The Godfather. For days, he told me he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing... the thing did not click as it should. In 2017, Gone with the Wind was pulled from the schedule at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, after a 34-year run of annual showings. [98] Film directors ranked it 322nd in the 2012 edition of the decennial Sight & Sound poll,[95] and in 2016 it was selected as the ninth best "directorial achievement" in a Directors Guild of America members poll. It became the highest-earning film made up to that point, and held the record for over a quarter of a century. Until her death in 1949, Mitchell continued to resist pressure to write a sequel from Selznick and MGM. Recalling the episode in a letter to screenwriter friend Gene Fowler, he said he hadn't read the novel but Selznick and director Fleming could not wait for him to read it. The Old Mill Park, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner. Though Gone With The Wind was released generations before my time, I love vintage cinema and purchased the movie from Amazon tonight after HBO Max's decision to remove the movie from viewing based on John Ridley's recommendation; read his gripping book “12 Years of Slaves,” wonderfully written. Gone with the Wind, American epic film, released in 1939, that was one of the best known and most successful films of all time. "But despite the number of writers and changes, the final script was remarkably close to Howard's version. In 1975, her brother, Stephens Mitchell (who assumed control of her estate), authorized a sequel that would be jointly produced by MGM and Universal Studios on a budget of $12 million. He provided bananas and salted peanuts ... thus on the seventh day I had completed, unscathed, the first nine reels of the Civil War epic. “Gone With the Wind” stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie McDaniel and Olivia de Havilland. More than any film since The Birth of a Nation, it unleashed a variety of social forces that foreshadowed an alliance of white liberals and blacks who encouraged the expectation that blacks would one day achieve equality. [132], George [Cukor] finally told me all about it. This section showed that slave experiences were diverse and as a result, it concluded that the "happy darky" was a myth, as was the belief that all slaves experienced violence and brutality. Fleming was dissatisfied with the script, so Selznick brought in the screenwriter Ben Hecht to rewrite the entire screenplay within five days. Director George Cukor, with whom Selznick had a long working relationship and who had spent almost two years in pre-production on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less than three weeks of shooting. When Rhett returns from an extended trip to London, Scarlett informs him that she is pregnant, but an argument ensues which results in her falling down a flight of stairs and suffering a miscarriage. [28][34] Hattie McDaniel was also absent, as she and the other black cast members were prevented from attending the premiere due to Georgia's Jim Crow laws, which kept them from sitting with their white colleagues. Drama. [19] Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion. Despite many excellent scenes, he considered the drama to be unconvincing and that the "psychological development" had been neglected. Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. [53], At the 12th Academy Awards, Gone with the Wind set a record for Academy Award wins and nominations, winning in eight of the competitive categories it was nominated in, from a total of thirteen nominations. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie. [131], Following the publication of her novel, Margaret Mitchell was inundated with requests for a sequel but she claimed not to have a notion of what happened to Scarlett and Rhett, and as a result, she had "left them to their ultimate fate". After the attack on Scarlett in the shanty town, a group of men including Scarlett's husband Frank, Rhett Butler, and Ashley raid the town; in the novel they belong to the Ku Klux Klan, representing the common trope of protecting the white woman's virtue, but the filmmakers consciously neutralize the presence of the Klan in the film by simply referring to it as a "political meeting". [123] The next scene, the following morning, shows Scarlett glowing with barely suppressed sexual satisfaction;[121][122][123] Rhett apologizes for his behavior, blaming it on his drinking. Gone With the Wind Museum Click here for more information. The story of T.E. It ran for four hours and twenty-five minutes; it was later cut to under four hours for its proper release. A distraught Scarlett returns home to Tara, vowing to one day win Rhett back. However, Selznick changed his mind after his story editor Kay Brown and business partner John Hay Whitney urged him to buy the film rights. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War. [37] Including its distribution and advertising costs, total expenditure on the film was as high as $7 million. [19] It became at that time the highest-rated television program ever presented on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 65 percent of television viewers, still the record for the highest-rated film to ever air on television. 14 wins & 12 nominations. Scarlett is beautiful. [5][6][7], The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. [43][80], Across all releases, it is estimated that Gone with the Wind has sold over 200 million tickets in the United States and Canada,[66] generating more theater admissions in that territory than any other film. After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. At the 12th Academy Awards, it received ten Academy Awards (eight competitive, two honorary) from thirteen nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Fleming), Best Adapted Screenplay (posthumously awarded to Sidney Howard), Best Actress (Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award). [9] By this time, Selznick was determined to get Gable and in August 1938 he eventually struck a deal with his father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer: MGM would provide Gable and $1,250,000 for half of the film's budget, and in return, Selznick would have to pay Gable's weekly salary; half the profits would go to MGM while Loew's, Inc—MGM's parent company—would release the film. [14] Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. [16][17], Of the original screenplay writer, Sidney Howard, film historian Joanne Yeck writes, "reducing the intricacies of Gone with the Wind's epic dimensions was a herculean task ... and Howard's first submission was far too long, and would have required at least six hours of film; ... [producer] Selznick wanted Howard to remain on the set to make revisions ... but Howard refused to leave New England [and] as a result, revisions were handled by a host of local writers". A spokesperson for HBO Max, which like CNN is owned by WarnerMedia, told CNN Business that "Gone with the Wind" is "a product of its time and depicts some … A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. [45], The film received its U.S. television premiere on the HBO cable network on June 11, 1976, and played on the channel for a total of fourteen times throughout the rest of the month. [121] The scene has been accused of combining romance and rape by making them indistinguishable from each other,[121] and of reinforcing a notion about forced sex: that women secretly enjoy it, and it is an acceptable way for a man to treat his wife. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father has lost his mind. – Nominated, This page was last edited on 7 May 2021, at 22:47. With Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil. [46][19][47] Other cable channels also broadcast the film during June. [44] In 2014, special screenings were scheduled over a two-day period at theaters across the United States to coincide with the film's 75th anniversary. [52] Of the other principal cast members, both Hoellering and Flinn found Leslie Howard to be "convincing" as the weak-willed Ashley, with Flinn identifying Olivia de Havilland as a "standout" as Melanie;[52][53] Nugent was also especially taken with de Havilland's performance, describing it as a "gracious, dignified, tender gem of characterization". [62][64] Malcolm X later recalled that "when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug". [124], Gone with the Wind and its production have been explicitly referenced, satirized, dramatized and analyzed on numerous occasions across a range of media, from contemporaneous works such as Second Fiddle—a 1939 film spoofing the "search for Scarlett"—to current television shows, such as The Simpsons. [62] Even so, some sections of the black community recognized McDaniel's achievements to be representative of progression: some African-Americans crossed picket lines and praised McDaniel's warm and witty characterization, and others hoped that the industry's recognition of her work would lead to increased visibility on screen for other black actors. [106], Thomas Cripps reasons that in some respects, the film undercuts racial stereotypes;[107] in particular, the film created greater engagement between Hollywood and black audiences,[107] with dozens of films making small gestures in recognition of the emerging trend. [9][32] In his biography of Selznick, David Thomson wrote that the audience's response before the film had even started "was the greatest moment of [Selznick's] life, the greatest victory and redemption of all his failings",[33] with Selznick describing the preview cards as "probably the most amazing any picture has ever had". In its editorial congratulation to McDaniel on winning her Academy Award, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life used the film as reminder of the "limit" put on black aspiration by old prejudices. [77] MGM earned a rental of $41 million from the release,[78] with the U.S. and Canadian share amounting to over $30 million, placing it second only to The Graduate for that year. Selznick undertook rewriting the second half himself but fell behind schedule, so Howard returned to work on the script for one week, reworking several key scenes in part two. Comedy, Certificate: Passed [96], The film has featured in several high-profile industry polls: in 1977 it was voted the most popular film by the American Film Institute (AFI), in a poll of the organization's membership;[9] the AFI also ranked the film fourth on its "100 Greatest Movies" list in 1998,[97] with it slipping down to sixth place in the tenth anniversary edition in 2007. From a private letter from journalist and on-set technical advisor Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939: highest-earning film made up to that point, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, most profitable film ever made up to that point, Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, 200 million tickets in the United States and Canada, AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind, The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures, "Mary Anderson Dies at 96; Actress had Role in 'Gone With the Wind, "The Making of Gone with the Wind, Part I", "The Search for Scarlett: Girls Tested for the Role of Scarlett", "The Search for Scarlett: Vivien Leigh – Letter from David O. Selznick to Ed Sullivan", "Without her, the 'Gone With the Wind' film might not have sounded as Southern", "Inland Empire Cities were Once 'In' with Hollywood for Movie Previews", "The Making of Gone with the Wind, Part II", "Gone with the Wind: 75th Anniversary – Screenings and Events", "Robert Osborne on TCM's 15th Anniversary", "The Screen in Review; David Selznick's 'Gone With the Wind' Has Its Long-Awaited Premiere at Astor and Capitol, Recalling Civil War and Plantation Days of South—Seen as Treating Book With Great Fidelity", "From the Archive, 28 May 1940: Gone with the Wind at the Gaiety", "New York Film Critics Circle Awards – 1939 Awards", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "Oscars – Cinema's Golden Night: The Ultimate Bluffer's Guide to Hollywood's Big Night", "Factbox : Key Historical Facts about the Academy Awards", "Academy Awards: Best Picture – Facts & Trivia", "17 Unusual Oscar Records – Longest Film (Running Time) to Win an Award: 431 Minutes", "The Long Battle Over 'Gone With the Wind, National Archives and Records Administration, "Domestic Grosses – Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation", "Top 250 tous les temps en France (Reprises incluses)", "Highest Box Office Film Gross – Inflation Adjusted", "Frankly My Dear, The Force is With Them as Gone With the Wind and Star Wars are the Top Two All Time Favorite Movies", "Gone but Not Forgotten: Gone with the Wind is Still America's Favorite Movie", "Time, Alas, Has Treated Gone with the Wind Cruelly", "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)", "National Film Preservation Board: Film Registry – Complete National Film Registry Listing", "National Film Preservation Board: Film Registry – Nominate", "Theatre in Memphis Pulls 'Racially Insensitive' Gone With the Wind". 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